Heartland

For London Sisters/Cure folk, this looks like it should be really interesting:

http://www.woodmill.org/

Sunday 29th August / 3pm Onwards

SOUND SEMINAR

David M Allen will be joining together his musical history- through boyhood fascination with analog sound making, his genre defining work as producer of The Cure, Human League, Sisters of Mercy, and interests, discoveries and projects in the present. David will also be joined by his own invited guests.

Followed by a selection of music videos / films in the outdoor cinema / food & drink available

Thanks for the heads up.

Sounds good !

Obviously the Sisters were not impressed with Allen, so it would be interesting to hear his take on FALAA. Eldritch talked about "iffy production", Marx about "production weaknesses".

RobF wrote:
David M Allen will be joining together his musical history- through boyhood fascination with analog sound making, his genre defining work as producer of The Cure, Human League, Sisters of Mercy,The Chameleons and interests, discoveries and projects in the present. David will also be joined by his own invited guests.

Followed by a selection of music videos / films in the outdoor cinema / food & drink available

...aye, don't know why they wouldn't get a mention

Arts centres. Bah.

I've never really understood the FLA production problems. He seems to have managed fine with every bugger else.

RobF wrote:I've never really understood the FLA production problems. He seems to have managed fine with every bugger else.

At least there was a PRODUCTION then, because there was a PRODUCT

IZ.

Might go to this

Aye, I've long suspected that the main reason why Von doesn't like it is because he didn't do it. There's nothing much actually wrong with it (at least in it's original mixes incarnation).

well to me it got lack of dynamic and power and it sounds a bit shallow (music).

it lacks bongos

weebleswobble wrote:it lacks bongos

Very important that.

Ha ha! SKOS or Black Planet with bongos! I'd pay good money to hear that. Maybe a ukelele on Amphetamine Logic, sung in a George Formby stylee.

And cowbell.

Needs more cowbell.

IZ.

and a bitchin' vuvuzela solo.

Oddly, what Eldo and Mr. Marx seem to consider the production mistakes: The hollow sound, that clinical coldness, and the thwappyness tend to be exactly the elements dodgy crimpers'n'lacy-cuffs beggars spent years trying to ape.

It's so ingrained in my head as an album; I can't really imagine what it would sound like with a different production direction.

Tracks like SKOS, NWN and Possession would sound amazing with a similar sound to the Floods or Driven LTS, but they would need a completely different vocal delivery. That whispery, croaky thing that disappears into the mix live rather too often, sits beautifully in the mix on the quiet Floodland tracks. I suppose the FLA tracks were still written with gigs in mind, whereas the Floodland tracks were never designed to be heard live.

Yes, and bongos obviously. Even Whitehouse employ the odd bongo.

Amen! Rob

Izzy HaveMercy wrote:And cowbell.

Needs more cowbell.

IZ.

I gotta have more cowbell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZOHY7Z5 ... re=related

Now I've found something that says Sisters of Mercy Vs NAPT (with cowbell) but damned if I can get it to load. And it wasn't easy finding the original SNL cowbell sketch either

The band ain't always correct. The Troy Tate sessions for the first Smiths album that the band rejected are actually better than the released version. I like F&L&A.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote:

RobF wrote:I've never really understood the FLA production problems. He seems to have managed fine with every bugger else.

At least there was a PRODUCTION then, because there was a PRODUCT

IZ.

so true.

I think parts of F&L&A sound a little underproduced perhaps, but it has a certain rawness that I like. I'd be interested to go to this as he produced some of my favourite albums...

Many years ago in possibly my only ever worthwhile post , I did fire up a version of Black Planet which featured cowbell cranked up beyond 11.

Surprised to see that it still exists. Enjoy: http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=Kj1rO

Will report back later

Goodo. I have a mate moving back to Mumbai tomorrow, so I'll be missing it, ask pointed questions....

So we found ourselves in one of those 'art' centres...

To be honest I was expecting a lecture but the laid back installation exhibition room kinda worked.

I got the impression that David was all prepared to give us a musical history of all the bands he'd worked with and how he got into the music business, but about five minutes in he realised that only two people in the audience were getting the references. So instead he decided to show us some instruments he'd made, and told us a funny story about the Human League in a gay bar.

After the break he played us one of the many Cure tracks that he'd worked on and then opened it up to questions.

Seeing as no-one put their hand up I took this as an opportunity to hijack the entire thing into Sisters territory, asking if he wouldn't mind telling us a little bit about his time with the band. What ensued was a fantastic story


Here's some stuff that I remember...

He first saw them at the Brixton Ace (in what must have been 1983). Then someone from WEA invited him to see them at the Milky Way in Amsterdam, to see if he wanted to work with them. He later received a telegram from Eldritch saying "The Sisters say 'yes' to David Allen"

They spent five weeks recording the album in Stockport during which time Eldritch never left the studio and spent the entire stretch topping himself up with speed. After the first three days the original sound engineer had a diabetes related breakdown, and decided to unplug everything in the studio!
At some point Eldritch decided to tip-ex out all the working titles that were on the tapes so they had to listen to everything and relabel it all
After spending two days recording the vocals for Some Kind Of Stranger, Eldritch requested that Allen remove the first verse as it made it obvious that he'd cheated on his girlfriend.

Allen only saw Eldritch's eyes once.

Allen couldn't remember what Down to E like a motherfucker became, but he seemed to imply that it's a song we're familiar with.

After the recording was done Allen went for a meeting in Eldritch's "Goth Office"


All in all a great day with a chap who has a lot of cool stories to tell. I personally think a book is in order


I feel like a right gossip